The real stories from inside the F1 paddock

Things that don’t get noticed immediately

Formula 1 has tried for many years to give a professional impression with its use of car liveries. Back in the 1950s the cars were painted up in national colours. The advent of sponsorship led to some real Spanish omelettes and then gradually the teams were convinced to smarten up and present the same basic livery at each race in a season. Ferrari stayed with Italian racing red, Ligier went with French blue and so on. Colours became visual real estate: Lotus claimed black and gold, McLarens were fag packets on wheels, Jordan grabbed green and then went yellow because it paid more money. The concept was a good one. TV viewers and fans at the track are all able to instantly recognise the cars. There are two-car teams and they have the cars have the same liveries. The F1 Sporting Regulations actually dictate that a team must have the two cars in the same colours and they must even get permission from the Formula One Commission if they want a change the livery during a season. This may seem odd but it means that the fans know what they are looking out.

In comparison, most of the big NASCAR teams have nothing to link their cars, they change liveries all the time and have a bunch of hideous little stickers on each car that make them look rather messy. However, the advantage of doing business the NASCAR way is that major sponsors can change from one race to the next. The downside of this was that sponsors quickly realised that there was more return on paying for a title sponsorship on a top car, than there was from spending the same money for more races on a car in the midfield, which meant that sponsorship was sucked into the big teams and many smaller operations struggled or went out of business. Today the top NASCAR team is Hendrick Motorsports but if you look at the team’s four cars (48, 24, 88 and 5) there is nothing in their liveries which links them. The F1 view of this is that if you line then up in a row, they just look messy. Do that again a week later and they all look different – and still messy. There is no consistency (except the car number) but the fans seem not to mind. There is an argument, which F1 uses, that it is wiser to spread the money between the team’s cars and then the sponsors all get a look-in if one of the cars wins the race. The space available may be different but the odds are better – and a team looks like a team if everything is uniform. The logic of the NASCAR way is that it brings in more money (which may or may not be the case).

The NASCAR fans don’t seem to complain much at all the livery changes that happen and so one must assume that they either have not thought about the systems and just accept what they are given, or are better informed than F1 fans. This year the F1 teams decide to allow the drivers to have their own numbers, which is helpful in marketing terms although it is still quite hard to see the numbers on most of the cars because they are still very small, or located in places that make them difficult to see. The F1 teams do not wish to give up square inches of sponsorship space.

The F1 system is fine as long there is money about but it was very interesting in Melbourne to see that both McLaren and Lotus decided to use their empty sponsorship space to give their smaller sponsors a bigger bang for their buck. One presumes that the sponsors paid a little extra for the space but do not expect to see Mobil on the side of the McLaren all year, nor Clear (a Unilever brand) on the side of the Lotus. These were, in effect, one-off deals to get the teams more cash while they search for title sponsorship deals. There is nothing wrong with this as the livery remains the same, but it is an indication that even the competitive teams are these days looking for cash wherever they can get it. The fact that such successful teams cannot find title sponsorships (even cheap deals) is slightly worrying, but with pay-per-view TV and stiff competition not just between the teams but also with the Formula One group, the message is clear: times are hard.

No there isn’t:
21.2 Each car will carry the race number of its driver as published by the FIA at the beginning of the season or the race number that has been allocated to his replacement under Article 19.1(b)(iii). This number must be clearly visible from the front of the car and on the driver’s crash helmet.
21.3 The name or the emblem of the make of the car must appear on the front of the nose of the car and in either case be at least 25mm in its largest dimension. The name of the driver must appear on the external bodywork and be clearly legible.

Thank you for this post, I’ve been saying this for years. When McLaren can’t come up with a title sponsor for the first race, you know you are dealing with a fundamentally wrong business model.

I still think, though, that team identification is important, so I’d vote for the two cars having the same looks. But if the teams could make race-to-race contracts with sponsors, a regulation could be made that X percent of the surface from all profiles should contain the same pattern and colour for a consistent team identification through all the season and they can put whatever they want to on the rest of the car as long as the two cars match.

I had to look this up as I thought $35 milltion was a bit much. This link points to the Dupont sponsor, which is going for $12 million a year. I was unable to find links for National Guard or Lowes amounts. Primary sponsorships in NASCAR do not run as high as F1 from what I’ve read. I’d love to read otherwise.

I think – I may be wrong – but Ron Dennis said his team did have options but they were not willing to pay the McLaren rate ( not his exact words).

I was disappointed that the Williams cars from most angles looked empty of any sponsorship. I think this is partly due to dropping their dark blue scheme,
combined with – I presume – Martini having to pay for every inch of their stripes.
Running these over the top of the side pods – like Lotus late ’79 – might look better/more obvious.

Ron is obviously a shrewd cookie, but the expression that a bird in the hand is better than one in the bush, comes to mind. I know the rate card argument, but a solid sponsor paying a bit less, would seem to me to be better than Ron using his own wallet!

I can’t imagine Ron can (would want to?) run at a loss for that long (assuming he is) but perhaps Honda are supporting in the background? However they certainly had a good first run out in Melbourne which wont do any harm – and they have a new Wonderboy from the look of it – great for sponsor publicity

It wouldn’t come as any great surprise to me, that RD whilst very shrewd, might also be a tad arrogant. If he was using McLaren Group finances to keep rolling until he finds a sponsor who agrees to pay him what he wants ( any Danish companies? ), then he ought to remember what Rob Walker, that great private racing entrant was oft quoted as having said when asked, how do you make a small fortune out of motor racing, his reply was, start with a big fortune!

This is not directly in response to the article, but I’ve been thinking about the noise question. Would it not be feasible to fit an adjustable megaphone to the exhausts, so that the noise level could actually be pre-adjusted to suit the sensibilities of the respective venues? For wide open circuits it could be full on, but for Monaco etc perhaps it could be nearer to the present level. This would optimise the crowd appeal while not damaging peoples’ hearing in enclosed locations, play a little more to the environmental aspect and make F1 more marketable in marginal circumstances. Any mileage in this?

Constant livery changes gives more opportunity to sell model’s of those liveries.

I personally like the Brad Jones Racing method of splitting sponsorship, where each car has a title sponsor from a company and there is significant signage from the sponsor on the other company on that car and vice versa.

I believe that NASCAR teams used to be able to forgo having to put the series partner decals on the car if they paid a fee that was estimated to be roughly 1 million USD, although I only seem to remember the now defunct (Technically it is still going as BK racing, although in a smaller sense) Red Bull Racing doing it.

You neglect a BIG difference between F1 and NASCAR – the BIG number on the side of the car in the States. No need to keep track of liveries if you can remember the two-digit identifier of your favorite driver.

(Also, ‘teams’ seem to mean little here – there’s much less hype over Childress or Hendrick than Ferrari or Lotus, and all those little stickers I expect are a left-over form the grass-roots origins of stock car racing in the early years.)

You’ve said this before but offer no proof or concrete examples other than an opinion. Which is all well and good but it doesn’t accurately reflect the sponsor climate and value the sponsors get from being able to brand a car with its logos and colors down to the pit uniforms and pit equipment or a team by being able to sell multiple high dollar deals a year.

Another point you miss is that each car constitutes a team, not the total number of cars under one owner/team affiliation. Hendrick has four teams, not one four car team. Let’s say them get 4, 20 mil sponsors. If all four cars were liveried the same they’d need to get one 80 mil sponsor and that’s not going to happen particularly when you have drivers that have long associations with their sponsors and the branding tied to those sponsors.

Those little stickers as you call them are contingency decals that pay money for using them. Some are required by the sanction, others are optional but all of them have one thing in common. They pay. It allows small teams or start and park teams to break even or perhaps turn a bit of a profit. That’s the reason why in the results you may see a lower placing team make more money. It can be because of contingency. NASCAR has a much more equitable revenue distribution model that pays for performance now. Not how you did last year or some secret payout because your car is red but on how you are doing in the season.

I get Joe’s point, but I think the quest for looking professional has also made them look boring – Sauber is the classic example. The team’s liveries have always been yawn-inducing. With regard to Williams I would have wanted those Martini lines to appear more prominent than they now are.

Symmetrical F1 cars look right to F1 fans, 2 digit numbers and lots of stickers look right to Nascar fans

I actually think the bright Nascar paint jobs look quite good
Half the F1 field could do with some more colour/stickers – eg: Sauber. Maurusia, Caterham
On the whole the F1 paint jobs are pretty bland this year, even the nice looking Williams Martini is underdone , there was a mockup from Forza before it released that looked better.
And surely chrome is starting to get passe by now for Mclaren and Mercedes?

It was funny on a sim racing forum just how passionate the Nascar fans are about the number- there was an uproar when they allowed them to have 3 digit numbers in the game – “it just doesn’t look right” they cried
If the number doesn’t have the right italic angle to it they’ll also be annoyed, whereas the V8 supercars fans didn’t care, they were used to 3 digit small numbers like 888, and the F1 guys didn’t even pay attention to the number

But I think people identify with a team a lot more in F1. There are many out there who back a team as much as they do a driver.

One thing I’ve always wondered about – is there a rule in F1 that prevents you positioning sponsor logos so they are facing the onboard camera? Indycar, NASCAR and the V8s in Australia have this horrid habit of plastering surfaces with decals that are oriented to give maximum exposure. I’m not sure if it’s a specific rule or just common sense good taste that this is not done in F1. It would seem like it might be Bernie thing, and I must say he’s exercised good judgement if that’s the case.

“But I think people identify with a team a lot more in F1. There are many out there who back a team as much as they do a driver.”

This is exactly what I was going to write. It strikes me that fans are split in terms of allegiances in F1, some follow drivers, others follow teams. NASCAR fans seem more to follow a driver – I think of more relevance to F1 at the moment is what’s happening at MotoGP.

Question, How was David Couthard allowed to race in the wings for life livery in his last grand prix when it was different to what the cars had for the rest of the year and mark webbers car at that race ?

Joe,
I have to say I am not a fan of the NASCAR livery approach. To damn hard to recognize a car race to race.

So I thought that McLaren COULD have had a title sponsor already but declined, to get some more race wins, so the rate they could charge would be higher or is that a smoke screen for the hard times you mention?

In the poor low tech days of my youth, F1 cars had a large number in a white coloured rondel, on each side of the chassis, and a large number, again in a white circle, on the nose. Also drivers from back then had a helmet colour theme, and the fans could recognize who the driver was by easily seen number, and helmet design…back then it was rare for a driver to change the colours on his helmet,..these days some of the guys change the design for every damn race! It was never rocket science, and spotting the make of car & who was in it was simples! As they say in the USA, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It also helped that none of the cars looked alike, this aspect has finally returned with the new ugly noses this year.

The reason that a change of sponsorship paint works in NASCAR is because of the car number staying the same. The number is larger on the full bodied car though and this would not work well in F1 because of having to give up too much marketable space. Many of the lower ranked NASCAR teams also pick up one race sponsorship from local business to where they are racing that weekend.
The only thing that is the same is that age old saying; “going fast costs money. How fast can you afford to go”.

A simple change in the F1 rules which doubled the height and width of the numbers on the cars and the addition that the colour must be a contrast to the background upon which it is placed. Then of course like must of us I would like to be able to see the number from the side of the car with at least a 140 ° viewing angle. The original/current reg is obviously to allow the steward or scrutineer to identify the car by number in the garage. One would think the drivers would be in agreement with revising the number display rules.

I remember the ructions when a team had two brands of cigarettes displayed one on each car. I was reminded of this the other evening in a program about banger racing in which one of the long retired drivers appearing in a “seniors” race in Granadas was in fact wearing his old racing suit, an ex Jenson Button garment carrying this chap’s number 555!

My source last year was impeccable, but I am not about to tell you who it was. If things have changed, they have changed. Maybe McLaren’s poor results last year were the problem. Maybe the company in question had troubles it was not expecting. Maybe the deal is still out there. We should wait and see.

You don’t have to go through FOM but as part of his contract Bernie is allowed to sell a certain amount of tickets. So there’s always more tickets on the FOM site, even if the official sites are close to selling out.

Joe, would you say that the lack of complaining by NASCAR fans is due to 99% supporting either a driver (number) or brand (ford, chevy, etc) so a team’s car need not be linked or have continuity in sponsorship. Is this down to the drivers number taking up the vast majority of sponsorship realestate? And so the first point of reference on the car. I believe you wrote a blog on this 10 -12 months ago. In an f1 version could this see drivers hold greater prevelence over the teams sponsors?

One of the curiosities about NASCAR is more often than not, the car is identified by the number, not the sponsor, or the driver necessarily. This hols true even among the drivers themselves when in an interview. “I was behind the 24 car, with the 88 car on the outside…”. Fans of NASCAR all know the numbers and who they are (24 Jeff Gordon, 88 Dale Jr.). Myself, while I don’t see it as the end of the world or anything, I feel it takes the human aspect away from the sport, to a degree. I think that F1 has poised itself to be in the same situation, at least as an option, as it is in NASCAR. If F1 reporters agree with me they should start calling the cars by the numbers, in addition to calling it “The NASCAR System”… Trust me, the LAST thing F1 want is for anyone suggesting they may have picked up an idea from ANY other race series and they’ll switch it as fast as they can. This isn’t anything new, mind you, it’s been the case for decades. A couple of examples where they actually changed the name of a system or a technique so that it spouned like an F1 exclusive: “Drafting” when used in F1 turned into “Slipstreaming” and a “Pace Car” was turned into a safety car. God forbid they admit to taking an idea from the Colonies! 😀

As far as I was aware (and I’m not stating any independent references here, so disagree if you want), it was ‘slipstreaming’ first (thinking of the Mercedes slipstreaming specials from the 1930s when they raced special aero bodies at Avus in Berlin), and drafting afterwards. And the safety car has been called that for as long as I can remember.

So, perhaps the US racing series decided to use different terms, in order to differentiate themselves from the ‘old world’?

Nothing illegal about getting your butt spanked. Bribing a public official though is illegal. One is a moral issue the other ethical. Corporations are worried about what a person does in the boardroom not the bedroom.

“The NASCAR fans don’t seem to complain much at all the livery changes that happen and so one must assume that they either have not thought about the systems and just accept what they are given, or are better informed than F1 fans.”

They don’t have to care because the car numbers are (by rule) so large that it doesn’t take long to figure out whose car you’re looking at, regardless of the paint job.

Liveries matter less in NASCAR because the big numbers of the doors and roof make it very easy to identify your favourite driver and car. In F1, it always takes me a few races to figure out the differences between the two cars (driver helmets, colouring touches on the car) to tell them apart. I liked when Brawn F1 had the name of the drivers on the cars (though realise that was because they didn’t have any sponsors).

the reason NASCAR fans dont care about the look of the cars is because they follow a driver. The drivers number is HUGE and easy to see in all the crap surrounding it.
As you say that will never happen in F1 because the teams like to think fans follow their car and real estate on the car is valuable.
Fans actually follow a driver mostly, possibly with the exception of Ferrari, in which case the idiots dont care who is driving as long as his car is scarlet.

The liveries change but the large numbers on side and roof stay the same. With the numbers leased by the teams there are lots of fans of the 43 car for example. There is also a lot of money made by selling models of said cars. A special one-off livery can be very collectible.

The mess of stickers is for various contingency and supplemental programs. Richard Petty was famous for not putting any beer stickers on his car and therefore was not eligible for the all star race sponsored by Busch beer.

In addition to the upgrading on Mobil sponsorship for the Melbourne weekend Mclaren also ran a one off deal with online clothing firm Asos with branding on the rear facing rear wing. Mclaren have been selling “vacant” sponsor windows for a few seasons now with the space on next to the drivers helmet usually adored with a one off deal.

I’m not sure it represents a change in culture toward sponsorship, more that companies are increasingly savvy to value of sponsorship deals.

Regarding the comment about teams not wanting to lose possible sponsorship space by using large numbers, I don’t understand the perspective at all. With the exception of Lotus all teams have more livery space than ever before!

The NASCAR approach downplays the team and instead promotes the driver. Only the keenest fans will know the cars are from Hendricks, but ALL fans are left in no doubt about who the driver is – #24 is Jeff Gordon, #48 is Jimmie Johnson etc.

You can see this on the cars – I don’t think there is a Hendricks decal on the car, but the whole of the doors are used to display the race number in huge font. Similarly, they give over the whole of the roof to the number, and also put a decal with the drivers name at the top of the windscreen so as to identify the driver when seen with an in car camera from another car. Finally, of course, the in car cameras also show the driver’s name on the dashboard.

So there’s lots of space given to promoting the driver – but don’t forget, these are much larger cars than F1 and do have big “slab” surfaces capable of carrying sponsors logos as well as all the driver identifications.

F1, on the other hand, downplays the driver more or less completely. Apart from the numbers, which are not visible and certainly not promoted, there’s no drivers name on the cars. Heck, even I put my name on the side of my racing Ford Escort!

Can’t help feeling that in promotion and driver profile, NASCAR can teach F1 quite a lot.

NASCARs are messy but the fans don’t need to recognize liveries as the numbers are big and bold – and they follow drivers, by their numbers, not teams. Oh for the F1 days of the giant air boxes and numbers – and whisper it, sometimes actually names – emblazoned on them.

The one common identifier of all NASCAR teams are HUGE numbers on the doors and roof as well. You can change the color of the car or the sponsor week to week, but as long as you can see the car number the typical fan can follow their favorite driver throughout the race.

There was a time when NASCAR sponsors would pony up $15 million to $30 million for a season long primary sponsorship, and the car never changed, with the exception of a one off commemorative paint scheme. Current economics have made teams accept multiple primary sponsors over the course of a season, so the car schemes seem to constantly change.

F1’s car numbers are an irrelevancy if no one can see them. Personally I cannot remember driver’s helmet colors (guess that makes me a casual fan) so it’s difficult to know who you’re watching on track.

McLaren and Lotus. I’m sure the prospects for big sponsor deals have had a huge boost at Mac with with KevMag’s success, but especially with Ron’s reappearance and his demeanor.
As for Lotus, difficult to find positive things to say about anything to do with them even if you pick words with care. I wonder what their recent Russian sponsors are thinking …..

Most senior execs from major corporations would look at F1 and would wonder about the following:

1. disasterous PR – for example the failure to get the message out about the 35% improvement in efficiency
2. reducing audience due to races with no spectators and switch to PPV TV
3. governance – CEO on trial being one of several problems
4. Discipline – no sense of cost-control responsibility

and conclude that the company’s money would be better spent elsewhere!

I guess the problem with advertising the 35% improvement in efficiency is that it is currently coupled with increased reliability problems. When they have the cars running problem free then (I suspect) we’ll see more advertising. Currently they’re too fragile to be marketable.

Nope. By the time the cars are reliable, we’ll be in the middle of the Ecclestone court case in Germany or the fall-out thereof. All of the publicity will be about damage limitation, and the technical side of F1 will be ignored because PR officers generally do not have the interest in technical stuff in the first place, and are more interested in what does least harm to the commercial sponsors (who also don’t care about the technical stuff, because their technical knowledge lies elsewhere, if they have any!)

Don’t think all sports sponsorship is focused on TV coverage. Working for a global oil co recently they switched from motor racing to football because the head cheese was a footy fan, and similarly I worked for a major telco where the chairman loved cricket hence thats where the corporate dollar went.

The big reason that NASCAR can get away with all the changing liveries is that the fans only connection to the car is the big number on the side. F1 allowing individual numbers is a smart move (though I would’ve preferred the teams choosing the numbers, so as to revive Ferrari #27 & 28, ect), but the numbers need to be mandated on the rear wing end plate so that it is actually visible on TV. I also think the days of both cars being mandated to share an exact livery is a bit antiquated. Red Ferrari’s and Silver Arrow’s are nice, but for every one else the livery is going to change with the title sponsor anyway, so I don’t see an issue with the two cars being different.

“The NASCAR fans don’t seem to complain much at all the livery changes that happen and so one must assume that they either have not thought about the systems and just accept what they are given, or are better informed than F1 fans.”

Hmmm. Could it be that NASCAR fans don’t seem to mind because, no matter how “messy” the look of the car, they can actually see the number of the driver on it’s side?

Well I think there are many experienced racing drivers from Europe and other zones, who would agree that it is a sport. In Europe we tend to look down on American sports, and baseball/us football, being said to be World Series, allows us to have a bit of a condescending view. However, we all are also very insular, the view in Europe is that Europe is a big fixture, but sadly that is always exposed as somewhat absurd as when any muscle is needed, it is the US who provide it in bucket loads.In NASCAR there is a lot of intricate under-the-bodyshell stuff going on that is not easy to see or understand. It used to be that USAC was mauled by Europeans as guys who just turned left all the time. To say stuff like that, is to say that Mario Andretti is not one of the greatest race drivers of all time, and to think that, would be pretty daft! It has been shown by many American racers who didn’t do F1, ( and Dario Franchitti too ) that US drivers are just as good as any elsewhere. Talledega Nights? Try a lap or two at Daytona against Richard Petty and see how you get along!

Hendrick Motorsports may field 4 cars but they are actually 4 discrete legal entities.

Another wrinkle title sponsors will utilize with NASCAR Cup teams,although not so frequently recently, is to contract for all 36 races at, let’s say $600,000 per, then syndicate 10 or 15 races to other companies looking for a few title opportunities at ,let’s say $800,000 per, thereby reducing the remaining cherry-picked title-sponsored races for themselves.

Back in ’91 Pennzoil decided it would become a title sponsor of Bahari, but they too didn’t like the contingency sponsor decal clutter on the side of the car. So they ponied-up the money the team lost in order to get a cleaner livery.

But the team association is of far less importance. Fans’ first loyalty is to driver. If they have a second loyalty it’s to car-branding (Ford vs Chevy). Any team loyalty is third at best… if it exists at all… which it generally doesn’t.

All of which seems a good scheme for downplaying the corporatization which really drives it all underneath… the emphasis is on people first, car brands that you can buy second. Why care if it’s a Hendricks car or a Childress?

I bet a lot more people care how Kobayashi does than care about how Caterham does… Personally, I hope Grosjean does well but Maldonado doesn’t… I suspect only the old teams, plus the recent dominator, have much in the way of team fans.

Having different marketing options within a team gives the marketing people advantages. Just like Coca Cola wants you to choose, not between Coke and Pepsi, but between a variety of Coca Cola brands, a successful NASCAR team doesn’t face the problem of convincing a sponsor to choose between Hendricks and a competitor, but rather between Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, i.e., not “us vs. them” but rather “which one of us?”

Despite the disparate liveries, NASCAR fans know who’s who… especially because on-track teamwork is more important in NASCAR. Get to the last few laps and the on-air commentary about who’s helping who is very explicit…

p.s. The NBCSN people told us that McLaren would have had no trouble finding a title sponsor at a lower rate… rather, RD refuses to adjust the rate card downward based on last year’s performance… he believes a good showing in this year’s early races will restore value and bring in a title sponsorship without selling the McLaren brand for less. Was your comment specific to Lotus?

I certainly believe you keep your ear to the ground about such things more than the NBCSN people do. Have you heard McLaren pushing the story that NBCSN passed on? Do you think it likely that a couple good showings will enable McLaren to charge whatever rates they’ve become accustomed to?

Has no-one suggested to El Ron that he get in contact with a couple of big charities in the interim? You’d have thought UNICEF, the Red Cross, Oxfam or Barnados would love to have their logos in F1, even if only for a couple of races.

I wish it were more obvious which drivers were team mates, even if the liveries weren’t the means. Race outcomes in NASCAR are influenced by team work(blocking? Forfend!) and I have a hard time knowing what’s happening since basically I only care about Kyle and Danica.

McLaren sponsorship. I choose to believe that MW was you source, Joe, and that Sony bailed because of Mr. E’s issues.

No, I did have a bet with MW that I would name the sponsor before he did, given the long lead time announced at the time. I’m pretty sure I was right but maybe the sponsor wobbled because of lack of results. I don’t know that. Sometimes getting news too early can be a disadvantage…

I also liked the livery of the Indy cars in the 50’s and 60’s. When F1 was all still in national colours, the American series had these beautiful (IMO) hot rod/custom car paint schemes. An example would be A.J. Foyt’s 1965 Lotus, though you could probably pick out any car in the pack.

I had actually been looking forward to McLaren running their pre-season livery until a new title sponsor had been announced. It was so…utilitarian. The name of their experimental machine in big bold text was oddly refreshing. It felt like they were competing for a Department of Defence contract.

I was happy to see car numbers on the tops of helmets. Bacon had his wrong way around, and a few others need to fine tune what the camera sees. But, all in all, a great improvement which makes car-ID nearly instantaneous without reading cues like glove-color or trying to learn which helmet Whatshisname is wearing today

In addition, some cars had legible numbers in places that are readily visible… but others didn’t. This is just plain stupid. These things should be standardized.

Also the argument that larger numbers will cost money in lost billboard space is spurious. Rather, larger numbers will change the calculation (e.g., more $ for signage near the newly visible numbers, fees based on % of ad-space, etc), but the overall fee total need not suffer due to the presence of readily visible numerals. It’s just that F1 hasn’t taken this aspect seriously as it affects the fan experience, which has long gotten short shrift under Bernie.

Like everyone is pointing out, in NASCAR it is the driver’s number, not the livery, that is the big deal.
When Dale Jr. changed numbers a few years back, he went from 8 to 88, One reason was to accomodate fans that had his number tatooed on their bodies. An easy update for them.
He even made a TV advert mocking this.

Many years ago when Marlboro were sponsoring both McLaren and Alfa Romeo, I complained to a Marlboro exec. that because of the identical colour schemes, it was difficult to identify the individual cars. “Great”, he said with the smile of a shark, “that means they are all Marlboros ….”

For the first time in a long time I wanted to buy some merchandise at the track.. a nice Martini cap or maybe even a Williams Polo shirt. However, the only teams that were selling anything were McLaren (most of it still Vodafone), Lotus, Red Bull (everywhere), Ferrari, and a bit of Mercedes. The other teams had nothing at the track (and we searched and searched). I would have thought Force India might have a bit, given Melbourne’s cultural diversity.
Seemed like a missed opportunity to me, but then again, maybe the smaller teams just don’t make enough to justify having a stand?

The thing is that NASCAR racers have hi-vis numbers 3 feet high on both sides and the roof. That makes it easy for the fans at the track and on TV.
Pity that F1 didn’t make the numbers for this year 2 feet high on the sides and nose. At least the drivers are thinking and put their numbers on top of the helmet.

You do have to why so many teams are struggling to present many sponsors for their efforts. With Caterham really only having business partners of Fernandes other businesses, Marussia having almost no sponsors and Sauber struggling as well to find any funding.
Is it the lack of ability of the teams to change their livery contributing to a lack of sponsorship – as you say Jordan changed from green to yellow but they the Sasol (92-94) and the 1995 car in between to make ends meet. Minardi too would change to suit, for example.
Is the team’s branding that desperately important that teams are not willing to change for main sponsors? Is that part of McLaren’s problem?
Or is the stupendously high amount of dollars they are demanding for a sponsor really hurting their changes of sponsorship in this current financial age?

My view remains that the series is just too expensive now on a cost/benefit analysis for many big companies. Moving to smaller sponsors means more stickers and not such simple colour schemes. The F1 Bubble is like the Westminster Political Bubble. Political parties in the UK are very disengaged from the voters who pay their way. In F1 the Principals are disengaged from the fans and now increasingly from the sponsors, all of whom have had to learn to be more economical with money since 2008…..something which F1 has not understood. I think Ron D maybe being rather arrogant in assuming he can dictate to the sponsors how much his team is worth to sponsor. Particularly since they haven’t won any title since 2008.

It may mean that the teams get more money, or the sponsors are happier, but I think there are a lot of intangible things you lose from it. Here in Australia, V8 Supercars is going down this NASCAR path with advertising and I think it’s probably been the one main thing that has driven me away from the series. Admittedly, it didn’t take much of a push to drive me away from it as I was in no way as emotionally invested in the series as I am with F1, however it’s food for thought.

Red Bull used a one off Star Wars scheme at Monaco a few years ago and the pit crew all had storm trooper helmets. So one off sponsorship seems to have a precedent in F1. I’m sure there must be more examples but that is the one that stuck in my mind. Great marketing.

Personally I prefer the F1 approach of a designated team colour scheme. However, most of the colour schemes have become ugly or boring over the years. Red Bull Racing have usually nailed it, and the Martini Williams livery looks gorgeous – and it really helps that they haven’t tried to cover every square inch with logos. Personally I’d like to see dedicated spaces for logos and dedicated spaces left vacant (much as on football uniforms, for example). It would limit the number of logos a team could run, and maybe it would spread the logos (and $$$) to more teams.

Joe, are there any paddock rumours as to how much Martini paid for title sponsorship? Given the 2013 results Williams had to sell with, I’m guessing not a lot. And those big white side pods for sale. And Bacardi/Martini not being a major drinks brand.

(Has anyone actually drunk Martini since they stole a dusty bottle out of the back of their parents drinks cabinet as a teenager?)

I think it would be better to compare Indycar and F1, since Nascar is a very different – the latter resembling a road car while former two looks like open wheel series. Though Indycars have larger numbers on their car than F1, but the problem is their numbers often fades into the livery. I can’t see any easy solution to this in F1. Fans will always be in the 2nd place, because F1 is business, before anything else. It needs the crowd to look at sponsorhip advertisements, so they don’t care too much about driver number’s visibility too much. Otherwise we would see Le Mans (or 24 hours of LeMons) like numbers.

Before I voice my opinion, I will say at the start that my perspective is probably not representative. I’m 66, but not a couch potato. I hike, cycle, and sail, i.e. I have a life beyond the TV screen. The first race I attended was the Canadian GP at Mont Tremblant somewhere around 1968. Chris Amon blew the motor of his RED Ferrari.

I used to watch the Daytona 500. I don’t anymore. Recognition is a factor. The look of the car is part of the dream. Teams can change their looks, as we all do, but not hourly. Recognition value is lost, especially to the casual fan. If you say Barça I immediately have an image of that blue and red striped sweater. That recognition factor has financial value. A fan can grow attached to it, as his team, or even as the team he loves to hate. In this sense, although I love cycling (Tour de France et al), the invisibility of the teams is a challenge to my interest. The beauty of the race track is a factor too. A casual fan thinks red for Ferrari, and McLaren has been silver for many years now. What I see here is the danger of short-term gain versus the long term financial well being of F1. Most fans are not fanatics. They are casual and will move on. There are many options out there.
Bernie himself is grating. He’s become an obstacle to ‘le spectacle,’ as the French say. As to the money, his group drain the sport in two ways. They take the lion’s share and all they offer are damn good lawyers who make sure they keep that share. Maybe just as harmful is that they wish to see GPs where they have the highest bidder. This could be in a country with a diamond mine and zero cars, and no fans – a poor market indeed, for Mercedes and Renault. The ‘car’ people want races where there is a market for their products. But that does not bring money to Bernie’s group, the group that has no team, no drivers, and which does not even regulate the sport. Even there the racers are not being well served.
Thank you Joe. Your blog is unique. It offers a comparatively broader perspective on the F1 world and makes one think. I hope the blog does well by you.

Keep going and keep watching sir! Joe says F1 is his passion, and I don’t disbelieve that for one second. To conjure up the vision that you have in your post, to me it just states….motorsport enthusiast. Which state I have been in since circa 1965, at the age of 7-8. Things get my goat sometimes, but the sound and fury connect me in a way that can’t be put into mere words. It’s like incredible music, the best music, of any time or type, can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end….any good race car, including rally cars, dragsters etc etc, should do the same. Whether you are watching Clark,Amon,Stewart,Rindt,Ickx,Rodriguez,Siffert,Fittipaldi,Peterson,Hunt,
Lauda,Prost,Mansell,Senna,Schumacher,Vettel,Hamilton…doesn’t matter, the artistry does!
Unfortunately, I would disagree to a certain point about whether a country with diamond mines is a good place for Merc and Renault sales. Renault wouldn’t make much of a mark in a place like that, except as taxis…but Mercs would be in abundance!!

The changing livery in NASCAR is a little bit like the constantly changing kit in sports like soccer or basketball. Another marketing opportunity to sell gear, collectibles, whatever. American fans love it, it makes the one-off livery “special”, and then you’ve got to buy the die cast etc.

Given the lack of sponsors on Sauber can we hope that the touted Russian deal didn’t go through? Because weren’t the Rotenbergs behind that? As well as the Sochi circuit? And now they are subject to US sanctions. A bit real world for F1, I know. But even partial ownership would subject them to asset freeze.

But in NASCAR the numbers on the cars stay the same and one can actually read the numbers unlike F1 where a casual or new viewer can’t tell the team cars apart. I have to look at the helmets to see who is who

Actually, the only “full-season” sponsors left are Ganassi’s Target and Hendrick’s Lowe’s. Even then sponsors co-brand the cars. Co-branding is prominent with Target, and also the Childress-affiliated Furniture Row team. For example, Furniture Row co-brands their car with various brands based on the proximity of the factories of the products they sell (typically various furniture-related products). Target sells co-branding sponsorship on the car, for example, Unilever, Clorox, or other consumer products.

Most sponsorship deals last no more than 24 races; the exceptions are FedEx (35 races), Target, and Lowe’s. The two full-season sponsors co-brand a few races each year to promote various products at their stores (Target), or to co-brand with movies that promote their children’s projects (Lowe’s, which did it last year with Disney’s Planes and Monsters University). Lowe’s, while it uses a Briggs Cunningham-inspired livery that would have looked good on a US national team car in sportscars or F1 60 years ago as its primary livery, also has a black livery (with the same Cunningham Stripes style only white) and will touch the livery for seasonal promotions (such as the current three-week promotion of having their “Spring Is Calling” promotion with a bird and a green tail). FedEx also uses various wraps on the cars for each race; to promote their various bands; purple (Express), green (Ground), blue (Office), and an orange (Freight and Less than Truckload) delivery. Also FedEx has one race co-branded with the March of Dimes (white car with purple numerals),

Most teams, however, use the same fonts for their numbers (Hendrick’s #24 and #48 (not #5 or #88), Gibbs’ #11 and #18 (but not #20), Penske’s #2 and #22 with the occasional #12 team, Childress’ #3 and #31 (but not #27), Waltrip’s #15 and #55, Stewart-Haas’ #4, #14, and #41 (but not #10), Petty’s #9 and #43).